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Arrests Made At Russian Opposition Rally

Russian police detained several opposition leaders, including blogger Aleksei Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, and Sergei Udaltsov in central Moscow on December 15 at an unsanctioned protest against the government of President Vladimir Putin. There was a heavy police presence for the rally on Lubyanka Square in temperatures as cold as minus 17 degrees Celsius. Protesters began by laying flowers at a monument in honor of victims of political repressions in Soviet times. Police reported that some 700 people attended the protest. Independent sources estimated the crowd at around 2,000 people. The protesters were surrounded by vans and riot police with a helicopter circling overhead. (Reuters video)

WATCH: Police make several arrests at a Russian opposition rally in Moscow (in Russian).

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MOSCOW -- Moscow police have detained dozens of protesters and several opposition leaders to disperse an unsanctioned rally in a square outside the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

In all, police say about 40 people were detained in Moscow and 26 in St. Petersburg during protests on December 15.

Opposition leaders Sergei Udaltsov, Aleksei Navalny, Ilya Yashin, and Ksenia Sobchak were among those detained. They were released later the same day without charge.

Protesters, gathered in freezing temperatures, were dragged away to police vans by officers in riot helmets for carrying political signs or symbols, such as the opposition white ribbon, or for chanting political slogans against President Vladimir Putin.

Hundreds of police officers surrounded and blocked off the square to prevent more people from approaching the monument to victims of Soviet-era repressions, where many were laying flowers as a sign of protest.

A police helicopter hovered above the crowd all afternoon and police were seen photographing people as they placed flowers on the monument.

"This was an unsanctioned event but people showed up anyway even though few people were expected to show up," said Filip Talanov, 42, a designer who has been participating in protests since Russia's parliamentary elections in December 2011. "We are now seeing a process toward a change of power, which will be gradual, but which is now irreversible."

PHOTO GALLERY: Antigovernment Protest Held In Moscow

There was a heavy police presence ahead of the unsanctioned opposition rally in central Moscow.

Protesters laid flowers on a monument dedicated to victims of political repression near the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) on Moscow's Lubyanka Square.

Independent sources estimated that the crowd of demonstrators numbered around 2,000 people.

Some protesters carried political signs, or chanted political slogans against President Vladimir Putin.

They were taken to a Moscow police station and held for several hours before being released.

There had been earlier reports that they could have faced serious penalties under a draconian law on demonstrations passed earlier this year.

Besides Moscow and St. Petersburg, similar demonstrations against the government were also conducted on December 15 in Yakaterinburg, Samara, Perm, and other cites.

Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov said the opposition Coordinating Council would meet on December 16 to discuss its next moves.

Nemtsov told RFE/RL's Russian Service that he thinks mass protests remain an important tool for bringing about change in Russia.

"Putin's propaganda said from the very beginning that either no one is coming out to the protests or the protest movement has already dried up," he said. "This is a special form of brainwashing for people who don't participate in the rallies but who sympathize with them.

"Nonetheless, I have to say that 40 percent of Russian citizens support the protest actions and those who participate in them, even if they don't participate themselves. This is a type of propaganda aimed at demoralizing the citizenry, but nothing will come of it. We believe that peaceful acts of mass protest are a very effective and realistic means of changing the political regime."

Nemtsov also told RFE/RL that, in addition to further mass protests, the opposition may participate in upcoming elections for governor of Moscow Oblast and mayor of Moscow.

Marina Shpar, 46, who was holding a white carnation at the Moscow rally, was hopeful that the protest movement would not dissipate after a year in which the authorities have offered few if any concessions to the opposition.